Fish Catching Travel
Baits that catch fish!
It has been quite a while since I have been to Keller Bay. High winds and dirty water have been a plague the last month. One thing about Keller is if the wind is wrong it gets flat out rough. Today was not that day. There was barely a breath of wind, or there was no wind. It was hotter than hades, and by time the wind quit and the tide got full at 1, the bite was over.
Generally in Keller the first stop is the pasture where the high bank is. When I got there bait was moving and so were the fish. The only problem was it was 8:30, 2 hours to late. The water had a brown tinge to it so it was the popping cork first. That is one of those techniques that has it moments and I do not throw it as often as I should.
A Rage Shrimp 20″ below the popping cork.
The bank there goes out to 4 feet plus and so the trolling motor kept me in 3 foot. 3 or 4 like this one took off with it. Just popping it along and letting it rest. Since I was not keeping them it was time for some experimentation. I threw watermelon red paddle tail, a copper sand eel, and an electric chicken paddle tail, all on a Strike King 1/8th ounce Flats Jig. I also gave the topwater a couple of tosses, but with no wind and being late, no one was interested. A couple of small ones hit the MirrOLure hardbait, but I did not have the right rod for it so that didn’t last to long.
The first plastic fish.
I worked the whole bank all the way down until it really flattens out and caught one here and there the whole way. There seems to be a pretty good mullet population because they were all over that bank, and everywhere else I have fished the past week. But it was pretty evident that the bite was slowing down. To bad I was lazy this morning. If I was keeping them it would have been a limit, and that was out of a dozen or so that I caught before it was time to redfish. And the popping cork was much better for the nicer fish, but again, I only caught the tail end of it.
There are two banks in Keller that hold reds consistently for me, the dock area and back past them on the grass bank, and also the right bank as you come in at the mouth of Keller. So I fished them both with a Redfish Magic.
And this was the big one.
The bank at the mouth had more color to it than the pasture, though it may have been due to the tide. I fished the whole thing and only caught the one above and had a flounder knock the crap out of it but not hookup. Next it was from the point by the ramp to past all the docks with the Redfish Magic. One rat jumped it by the first dock and I put him in the boat, and then not another bite. The water back in Keller is really off color, but I think it also had to do with high tide, no wind, and the water just not moving.
At this point, 2:00, it was 90 degrees plus with a heat index of 100 so I called it a day. Texas summer is back with a vengeance. Could be worse, it isn’t a 100 plus. The best I can say is there is a reason to get up at 5 in the morning and be there at first light. As good as the trout fishing was when I got there it must have been great the couple of hours before. A little reminder – get up – the fishing is better and when it gets hot it is hot.
It is so nice that the area waters are returning to normal. The bass fishing is picking up and the bay fishing has been pretty consistent. I haven’t really wacked them, but for as little as I have trout fished it has been all right the last couple of trips. A few more trips and I just might get the hang of it. But tomorrow it is back to Coleto. It should be cloudy and little wind, perfect topwater weather. I am thinking big one. So picking Voe up in the morning and fishing at daylight until we give up. So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
